A Lifestyle Blog

Menu

If you are a huge blog follower…you will understand the excitement of this post. If you are not a huge blog follower…you will still understand the excitement of this post. Because if you have ever had someone who makes you want to work harder and be better…then you will understand.

I have some bloggers who I look up to immensely and who inspire me each and everyday. Rachel Hollis from The Chic Site, Kate Bryan from The Small Things Blog, Maggie Whitely from Maggie Whitley Designs, Jessica from Fantabulosity, and Emily Ley…just to name a few! When my best friend sent me a Facebook message that Emily Ley was going to be at a Barnes and Noble only 40 minutes away from us for a book signing for her new book Grace Not Perfection, my heart jumped through the roof. Emily Ley is truly such an inspiration to me and I have been following her for about two years now. So to have the chance to actually MEET and CHAT with her… oh my goodness.

My friend Shawnee and I got there about 30 minutes early and saw everything set up. We were so nervous but so ecstatic at the same time. We went and got her book off the shelf and purchased it while our minds were racing with excitement. We walked over to the section where she was going to be…we were the first ones there. We got a seat in the first row and held our breath as we waited. I turned around and saw her walk through the door and couldn’t believe that it was real! We were being such fan girls, but we didn’t even care. It took her some time to come over, but once she did she was the sweetest person you’d ever met. She literally pulled up a chair and started chatting. She was incredibly underwhelming in person and so real. So real…that she pointed out that she forgot to wipe the deodorant…she thinks that’s what it was but she has almost 2 year old twins and admitted it could be spit up.. off of her dress before leaving the house. This fact made her even more real and more inspiring.

Emily talked about her reasoning for writing the book, balancing her life as a mom, career woman, and author while still taking time for herself. As well as finding time to follow the standard of Grace and not perfection.

One of the questions I asked Emily is how even through her struggle of getting pregnant… how did she continue to have faith? Her answer to me was “Someone once told me that if god puts a baby shaped want in your heart or a shaped anything in your heart, he intends to fill it one way or another. Our plan may not always look like his plan, but it is always what it’s supposed to be.” Her words gave me so much more faith and so much more acceptance in life. God put her in my path for a reason and I am truly blessed to have had this experience.

An organized closet makes me feel so good! What stinks though is it all gets messed up just a few days after I get both Barrett’s clothes and my clothes organized. I always organize our shirts by type (Tank top, dress shirt, t-shirt, etc.) I then organize our dress pants/dresses together and our casual daily clothes together. Somehow though throughout the week they get all crazy mixed up.

What I am coming to the conclusion of is that the system that I have chose is just not working for us. Therefore, I am looking to try something new. I have been doing some crazy research on Pinterest and have found some really cute ideas. I first thought that these would be a great idea, but I then came to the conclusion that Barrett and I both have careers that require us to dress up and the majority of our clothes need to be hung up.

So, after doing some more research, I have decided to try out these. I figured that I could use the blue tags for Barrett’s daily outfits and the pink tags for mine. I feel that by organizing our closet by outfit will not only keep our closet more organized in a way that we need it to be.

There is absolutely nothing better than blueberry muffins fresh from the oven…made from scratch of course. I am going to share my favorite and best recipe for melt in your mouth chocolate chip blueberry muffins! You’ll want to bring them to every staff meeting and brunch.

Ingredients:

1 pinch of Salt

1 cup of blueberries

As many chocolate chips you feel necessary (about 1 cup preferred)

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup of white sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flower

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 of cup of milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, cream butter or margarine with sugar.

Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.

Mix in milk and flour mixture alternately in three parts, starting with the milk.

Gently mix in blueberries and chocolate chips.

Drop batter by tablespoons into muffin pan

Bake 20-25 minutes

Check with toothpick and make sure it comes out clean. Blueberries might come out on it but that’s okay. You just don’t want the batter coming out.

First 5 is a great way to spend more time with God. This app allows you to dedicate 5 minutes each day with God. Lysa TerKeurst has done a phenomenal job creating this app and creating meaningful bible studies.

|firstfive.org|

ColorStory is a great app for editing photos. I like that I can overlay filters, which I can’t do on Instagram. When done with your photo you can share it right on Instagram or Facebook.

JoyFM Radio is one of my favorite stations to listen to in the car. I downloaded the app and realized that I can listen to it live from my phone while I’m cleaning, exercising, or just relaxing.

Periscope is great for live video chat. I follow my favorite bloggers on Periscope, like Kate from The Small Things Blog. It’s great for Q&A sessions or just if you have something really exciting to share.

So as some of you know, Barrett and I recently bought our first home and we absolutely love it. It is amazing the amount of space we have in comparison to our itty bitty one bedroom apartment. Although we miss our apartment just a little bit, because it was our first place together, we are in love with having something that is ours.

Something that we found ourselves doing even before closing was finding projects we wanted to do and things that we wanted for our house. Although this was exciting, it got expensive quick when we started to add it all up. So of course, we had to take a step back and look at our priorities. We knew that we needed a washer and dryer right away because…well we like clean clothes. We did not, however, need a new kitchen table right away so we put that on our lower priority list.

What we have done is created three separate lists. Our first list contains everything that we absolutely need and is first priority, things that need to be done within the next month. Our second list contains everything that we really want to get done but is not an absolute necessity, things that we want to get done within the next 4-6 months. The last list that we created contains things that we want but we know that we really won’t be able to afford for a while, things that can be completed within the next year or so.

There is really no way specific way to choose which category your projects fall in to except for what is most important to you. What can you live without for now and what you cannot live without.

A Teacher’s Passion
Teaching is my greatest passion in life. Ever since I was a little girl, I have known that being in the classroom is all that I want. Every day when I wake up in the morning, I don’t regret, even for a second, choosing this wonderful profession. Being there for my students and helping them fill their brains with knowledge is enough fulfillment to last me a lifetime. There’s a certain feel about a classroom that makes my heart skip a beat when I walk in. The smell of dry erase markers, the desk plates that show ownership for each kid, the set up, the furniture, and the accessories that go along.

Organization is the key

Photo from Ebay

To have success in the classroom, organization is a must. Training your students to keep everything neat and tidy is crucial to your sanity. The best way to do that is to provide all the tools for them to keep your room organized. Having office bins can be helpful as well as supply bins for each table. I am also a huge fan of color coding my tables with the the supply bins so that you can call your students up by table colors and organize all of their folders, binders, and book covers according to the color of their table.

Get Creative

Photo from Ebay

Having motivational and educational posters around also helps the room to feel more warm and less bare. Having a cute border around your bulletin board that matches the theme of your room always makes the room come together. I have noticed that when your classroom is done up nice, the students respond better and feel more at home.

The Reading Corner

Photo from Ebay

Having a nice reading corner is always so important to me as a teacher. The kids need to love reading and when they have a reading corner with comfy seating, good books, and pleasant lighting! Reading should be relaxing and it is our job as teachers to make sure that our students have a comfy reading corner to enjoy.

The Mini Lesson Zone

Photo from Ebay

This area is so important to students learning and collaborating. The mini lesson zone is where the whole group learning happens. You want to be sure to have a comfy classroom rug where each student can have their own space. You also want to be sure to have a nice comfy chair for read alouds.

I hope that these four tips help guide you to inspiration for your classroom! The environment that we teach in is so important not only for the students, but for us as teachers. If our classroom is bland and boring, then we will probably be bland and boring!

I have such a hard time finding a body wash that really works for me. I have dry skin and therefore I need something that is going to moisturize my skin and something that is going to smell amazing. In finding some body soaps that really work for me, I decided to share!

This month has definitely been a new world of beauty discoveries for me. I have found many products that have changed my daily routine tremendously. Bare Minerals really seemed to take over this month as you’ll see below.

1. Living Proof Dry Shampoo– This product is absolutely amazing. I have tried multiple dry shampoos and they just leave my hair powdery and heavy, however, this particular dry shampoo has been life changing. I can go without washing my hair for three days when before I could barely get through a day and a half. I have naturally greasy hair, therefore this dry shampoo works miracles for me.

2. Bare Minerals Original Foundation– Before this foundation, I always used liquid foundation and thought it was great…boy was I wrong. This foundation feels amazing on my face and gives me medium to full coverage.

3.Bare Minerals Brightening Primer-Before putting on my Bare Minerals Foundation, I put on the brightening primer. I love this product because I feel that I have dull skin and this helps to brighten it up a bit.

5. It’s a 10 leave in Product– This product is absolutely amazing. I have very knotty hair and just a few sprits of this all over my head and I can brush through my hair like a dream. It keeps my hair nice and hydrated as well.

I hope you enjoyed this March Beauty favorites and keep a look out next month for my April Beauty Favorites.

There is nothing I love more than sitting down with a good book and a cup of coffee in my hand.

Oh yeah and hot rich boys, careers you’d dream to be a part of, and three best friends that are too cool to not want to meet! If you guessed the Girl’s Series by Rachel Hollis then you are correct!

The first book in the series is Party Girl, I did a review here on this book a couple of months ago. This book is about a girl from a small town named Landon. She moves to the big city of LA, California as a Party Planners Assistant. Hollis takes you through Landon’s struggles and her crush on hot shot business man Brody. This book will make you laugh and possibly cry.

Novella: The first novella that goes along with this series is Part Girl’s First Date. This novella tells you the story of Brody and Landon’s first date. It is incredibly eventful and will make you laugh so hard you pee your pants and make you smile so much your face hurts! Oh yeah it may make you cry a little too.

The second book in the series is all about Max, Landon’s roommate and best friend. Well Landon thinks they’re best friends but Max thinks otherwise. Sweet Girl is a continuation of Party Girl only it’s about Max and her journey of wanting to own her own bakery and her love/hate relationship with Bennett Taylor.

The last book *sigh* talks about Miko and her crazy love for Brody’s brother Liam. Miko has been so in love with Liam that she is willing to change everything about herself to get Liam to notice her. This book is a great reminder to always be yourself and to follow your heart…the right way. Hollis does a great job portraying a hot romance between Liam and Miko.

From what I hear Rachel Hollis has a couple more Novellas coming for us based on the girls series so let’s keep our fingers and toes crossed!